I am pleased to have the opportunity to thank everyone for the help I have received in starting up my school. I have trained with master Ken Pankiewicz at the Kickfit Academy for almost 8 years and was privileged enough to be accepted onto his instructor training program and worked my way from SWAT team member to qualified instructor, although Master Pankiewicz gave me the opportunity to work full time, I was held back by my loyalty to my parents, as I worked in the family business.

This situation changed three months ago when I moved to Cornwall with my partner and young son. This was a difficult decision as I was not only leaving my immediate family, but also what I saw as my extended family at Kickfit Academy. With the encouragement of Master Pankiewicz I decided to start up my own school.

Obviously as an instructor I was aware of the EFC, but it wasn’t until I joined as a school owner that I understood exactly what it was all about.

From the first call with my account executive Katherine, I was impressed with the level of professionalism and advice.

Katherine gave my number to some other school owners and the next few days were spent talking to these over the phone. Everyone from Ken Robson to James Towill who was about three weeks ahead of me in opening his school gave me invaluable advice and encouragement.

Although Master Pankiewicz has been in regular contact and of huge help, I still felt quite isolated being so far away. Then I spoke to Mr. Andrew Spink and Mr. Paul Drury who are located close by in Devon. These guys went out of their way and as true martial artists went that extra mile and offered to come down for my open day. This changed my open day from just me chatting to a few people, to a fantastic evening of awesome martial arts displays in front of about 30 people, and the displays were awesome from their students doing kicking demonstrations and bow staff routines to Mr. Spink performing a black belt form and kicking routine that left the audience gob smacked. To finish with Mr. Drury showed immense skill and control slicing a cucumber in half off of Mr. Spinks stomach with his sword display.

I am writing this after returning from doing my first intro lessons, because of the help I received my only problem now is how to handle all the enquiries. Tonight I have done 15 intros (with more still booked). I only had 14 intros booked for tonight and 3 off those did not show up, but because of children and parents going away raving about what they saw 4 extra people showed up wanting to see what it’s all about. All of these are now booked in for 2nd intros.

This would not have been possible without the help I have received from others, so a big thank you must go out for Master Pankiewicz whose training has set me in good stead, Mr. Paul Drury, Heather Drury and Mr. Spink as well as their students whose helped make my open day a great success, and just as important have made me fell less isolated knowing I now have good friends close by.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and all these guys have helped make that step a big one.